Simply Abu Dhabi Magazine XVII

1 1 0 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I Interview with Francesco Guarracino, Executive Head Chef, BiCE Mare What is your career background and what initially inspired you to get into the hospitality industry? I believe that I born to be a chef; I’ve never really known anything else! My father was a 2 Michelin star chef – my first memory of cooking is making gnocchi and ravioli with him in our home when I was 5. I started to work in a restaurant at age 11 and have never stopped. Friends say my veins are filled with tomato sauce instead of blood, and I reply saying “only the freshest kind of tomato sauce!” How would you describe your cooking style? More than a style, I have a philosophy: I have to like what I’m serving. If the dish is not good for me, it’s not good for the customers. My food is simple, but not easy. The harmony and balance of flavours in each dish is fundamental for me. Each ingredient needs to be well balanced with the others. Just like music where all instruments are harmoniously played together, you taste a beautiful melody. What are you like with your team in the kitchen? I’m the one who makes decisions and I am the person solely accountable for them. I like to have an environment with clear rules for everyone, including me. During the service, I only focus on excellent quality and I want everybody to focus on the same. But I also like to have a good atmosphere in the kitchen because we are all together for many hours every day and good relations are crucial to deliver good food. I’m not an octopus – I really need my team with me; without them I couldn’t do anything. What is your signature dish? Signature dishes change often, depending on trends and on the which restaurant – you cannot serve the same dish in a Michelin star restaurant and in a high volume operation, for example. Now, I do have one particular dish that explains the BiCE Mare concept, called the Calamarata 1926. What is unique about the restaurant? We are ten Italian chefs working at BiCE Mare, each of us from a different region of Italy. It is really unusual for an Italian restaurant outside of Italy.